Observing
at Skyhound

This site began as the Skyhound
Observing Pages back in 1999. It was associated with
my software business that went by the name of CapellaSoft.
Eventually I changed the name of my business to Skyhound,
leaving the name of these pages--my personal observing
pages--entangled with the business name. My eventual
solution was to relaunch these pages as Observing at
Skyhound.

Our New Layout

The site is navigated via the links at
the top of each page. I have broken the observing
articles into two sections, for deep sky and for the solar
system (shallow sky). These sections will offer periodic
feature articles, monthly observing info, and links to
archived articles.

The Comet Chasing page remains a resource
for comet observing each month. I
hope people will find the articles in the observing handbook
to be useful; additional articles are welcome. Perhaps, in time, we may add
a forum.

My Deep Sky
Observing Project

Nearly ten years ago, after completing my 18-inch
Dob, I embarked on the most rewarding observing project of my
life. Each month I would carefully observe six new
objects. Some were well known, others obscure.
Some were appropriate for smaller telescopes, others were
challenging forays into the limits of large aperture visual
observing. In addition to true deep sky objects, interesting stars and double stars were also thrown in.

At the end of the month I would write an
article about each object I had observed and publish it
here. One article, called Focus On..., would
be more in depth than the others and sometimes observing
challenges were offered. I did this more or less continuously for
several years.

In addition to my own observations I
included the observations of others, created color pictures
from the DSS, included a simulated eyepiece view and sometimes
delved into the astrophysics involved.

It was immensely rewarding, and most of
all, it gave me a reason to hunt down new objects every
month. But I just couldn't keep it going forever;
time conspired against me. My interests began to evolve
and circumstances changed. Although this project ended
years ago, I compiled a wealth of interesting information and
observing experiences. It's sort of my own
mini-Burnham's, if you will. These articles are found in the
deep sky archives
and form the basis for the monthly deep sky objects linked to
in the deep sky section.

Although the main project is over, I do
hope to add a new object from time to time!